Bimal K. Banik, Ph.D. C .Chem. F.R.S.C.
President’s Endowed Professor, Science & Engineering
Professor of Chemistry
UT Pan American
"The extreme satisfaction and remarkable joy in teaching and mentoring has prompted me to continue in my profession to produce outstanding students and direct them in world-class science. I have the opportunity and privilege to engage students in the wonder of science in the classroom and the research laboratory, to excite students about their career paths, and to develop the next generation of researchers and educators. By providing support activities such as advising, mentoring, academic, research enrichment and scientific development training, I hope to contribute to increasing the number of students entering in higher education."
More information:
UTPA Department of Chemistry
S. Natasha Beretvas
Associate Professor, Department of Educational Psychology
UT Austin
"There are two kinds of rewards I enjoy as a teacher. The primary benefit involves helping students learn. This is especially the case in a topic area that seems intimidating to many. The second reward is a purely selfish one. Teaching provides me with an incentive to learn. The only way that I can explain a topic is if I manage to obtain a deep understanding of it."
More information:
UT Austin faculty homepage
Keith C. Brown, Ph.D., CFA
Department of Finance, McCombs School of Business
UT Austin
"I feel that the primary role of a teacher is to create an environment in which each student can learn to his or her maximum potential. While providing thought-provoking and demanding lectures is an important element of this environment, the real foundation of my approach to teaching is the belief that it is absolutely essential for students to become active participants in the learning process. By challenging students to take intellectual ownership of a large part of their own training, they develop a much deeper and more personal attachment to the process by which knowledge is created."
More information:
UT Austin faculty profile
Anthony M. Champagne, Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science
UT Dallas
“Students notice when a professor cares about the material and about teaching. And, soon the students are caring about the material as well. Ideally, students and teachers put aside everything else that is happening and for that 1 hour and 15 minutes of class, the subject matter is the most important thing in their lives."
Norman H. Cobb, Ph.D., LCSW
Associate Professor, Distinguished Teaching Professor, School of Social Work
UT Arlington
"Being a professor is an amazing role. I am allowed to continue learning the latest and best knowledge, and I am permitted to contribute new information to the field! Most importantly, I have the honor of teaching social work students who during their professional careers will use that knowledge to impact the lives of thousands of people."
More information:
UTA faculty homepage
UTA profile
Minerva Cordero, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Mathematics, Distinguished University Teaching Professor
UT Arlington
"My philosophy toward the teaching of mathematics is based on the belief that the role of an instructor, in any topic, is not merely to organize and present information to the student, but to lead them through a process of discovery. The goal of teaching is not so much the transfer of knowledge as it is the creation of a learner."
More information:
UTA faculty homepage
Mary Lynn Crow, Ph.D.
Professor of Education
UT Arlington
"My teaching philosophy involves the creation of a learning atmosphere where students feel intellectually and emotionally safe and are at the same time actively involved. Students should be challenged, respected, and have the experience of being a valued part of the learning community."
Andrew Dell'Antonio
Associate Professor of Musicology
UT Austin
"While I also find working with my advanced graduate students tremendously satisfying, my love is undergraduate teaching, especially at the lower-division level and when non-majors are involved. I believe that by focusing my energy on fostering understanding in students who are first approaching the study of music in cultural context (whether majors or non-majors) I am not only best serving individual students, but also facilitating our society’s increased understanding and valuing — and, ultimately, support — of the complexity and influence of musical experience."
More information:
Bringing Online Discussion into Class
Diversifying Assignments
Using Discussion Boards to Gauge Teaching
Robert A. Duke, Ph.D.
Marlene and Morton Meyerson Professor in Music and Human Learning
Director, Center for Music Learning
UT Austin
“Intellectual independence is the hallmark of a first-rate education. I’m most proud of the fact the undergraduates in our program leave the institution with a healthy combination of self-confidence and self-criticism. They know they’ve still got a lot to learn, but they're confident in their ability to learn it. I can’t think of a more productive attitude for an educated person to hold.”
More information:
Center for Music Learning, UT Austin
UT Austin faculty homepage
University Lecture Series at Cornell
Art Duval
Professor, Department of Mathematical Sciences
UT El Paso
"I work hard to create a course atmosphere, in and out of the class, that is positive, supportive and friendly, where students are engaged and learn to be unafraid to speak up, take chances, and even to make mistakes. I also set high but attainable standards, and push students to reach those standards, but at the same time provide lots of support to help them do so."
More information:
UTEP faculty homepage
Doreen Elliott, Ph.D.
Professor of Social Work & Distinguished Teaching Professor
UT Arlington
"My favorite definition of education is that given by John Dewey: 'education is that reconstruction or reorganization of experience which adds to the meaning of experience and which increases ability to re-direct the course of subsequent experience.' This definition sees education as an interactive process. I believe the challenge to us as educators is to make education a relevant transforming and empowering experience which recognizes the strengths of the individual student and the context in which they learn. I value the diverse experiences which our students bring to the classroom from varied cultures, career experiences and achievements in social work and in other careers, and in family responsibilities."
Robert A. Freeman, Ph.D.
Department of Mechanical Engineering
UT Pan American
"I believe one should focus on developing an effective classroom environment. This means first and foremost to come to class prepared (and on time). This requires a well-developed understanding of the desired student learning outcomes for the course and a thorough understanding of the knowledge associated with those outcomes, and the ability to present that knowledge in a number of different modes. In other words, create a knowledge-centered and learner-centered environment. Beyond those two attributes, and as professed by the National Academy sponsored study on How People Learn, strive to create a community-centered and assessment-centered environment. I try to address the community aspect by engaging students in the classroom dialog, by encouraging collaboration, and by including group assignments. The assessment aspect is tougher to deal with in light of the time required to provide immediate formative assessment. However, at a minimum one should provide immediate feedback via detailed solution keys to assignments and exams made available the moment those articles are due. Finally, never forget what it is like to be the student."
More information:
"The Knee"
Richard A. Gambitta, Ph.D
Director of the Institute for Law and Public Affairs
UT San Antonio
“Flying requires instruction, desire, and opportunity. I want my students to soar — so I educate, motivate, and open doors. I aspire to make an illuminating difference — to illumine past and present and proffer multiple perspectives in order to empower individuals to envision and meet their complex, future challenges and to reach their highest professional peaks.”
More information:
UTSA faculty homepage
UTSA Institute for Law and Public Affairs
Student Testimonial
Thomas J. Garza
University Distinguished Teaching Associate Professor
Chair, Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Director, Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies
UT Austin
"Success for both teacher and student depends on the integration of the essential language material with relevant and interesting subject matter. To this end, I strive to make my students the subject, not just the object, of instruction. I believe that any student with a genuine desire to learn Russian can do so, and can do so with success."
More information:
UT Austin video profile
“Rockin’ Russian,” a multilevel proficiency-based Russian language and culture online instruction program
“Russian History Online: The Khrushchev Years”
Interview with a Vampire Expert, ShelfLife@Texas
Jennifer Gray, Ph.D.
Associate Dean, Ph.D. in Nursing Program
UT Arlington
“Teaching is all about creating relationships with students in the context of the content and the program. Relationships are enhanced when learning activities are fun without being frivolous and evaluation is rigorous without being ruthless. Because I love nursing and teaching, being a nursing faculty energizes me.”
H. Neil Gray, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Chemistry
UT Tyler
"Above all, my primary desire is to train young minds, to fascinate them with chemistry as I have so often been. As a teacher, it is my duty to help students through a critical part of their life. I do this by being a good academic role model, by letting students know that I care about their academic and personal success, and by working hard to help them reach their goals."
Douglas F. Hale, Ph.D.
Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science
UT Permian Basin
"I believe all students ought to have a rather broad general education, even in individual courses. My classes must be more than just sessions where students come to learn rote mathematics or the technical details of computing systems. Students must be challenged to think and what they learn must be set into a broader context than just the classroom."
Susan Hart
Associate Professor, Department of Kinesiology
UT Brownsville
"All good coaches know that all the practice in the world can't take the place of actual game-time experience in the development of an athlete. This is nonetheless true for students pursuing academic success. Providing students with physical experiences, in the form of scientific research endeavors or service learning projects, is the stuff that makes what you're teaching seem important, makes concepts come alive, and fosters creative and independent thinking."
Linda D. Henderson, Ph.D.
David Bruton, Jr. Centennial Professor in Art History and Distinguished Teaching Professor
UT Austin
"My greatest joy in teaching is opening students' eyes to the world of art, so that they have the tools to see how works of art are made and to understand them as reflections of their cultural context. I seek to enable students to walk into a museum anywhere and to be able to talk in some way about what they encounter. We look at all aspects of culture, but I especially enjoy revealing to science students that their fields have had a powerful effect on the course of 20th-century art. Styles that moved away from the visible world, such as Cubism or abstraction, can't be fully understood without acknowledging the transformation of ideas about "reality" produced by discoveries like the X-Ray and radioactivity."
More Information:
di Suvero sculpture discussion at UT Austin [MP3 Download]
David Heymann
Martin S. Kermacy Centennial Professor in Architecture and Distinguished Teaching Professor
UT Austin
"I share my doubts openly, and in so doing involve the students in a conspiracy of learning. I found years ago that helping someone else clarify what they thought, or meant, or wanted, or believed in, most efficiently helped me to do the same for my own work, and for myself."
More Information:
Wikipedia profile
Michael P. Kilgard, Ph.D.
Neuroscience Program School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences
UT Dallas
"My research on the brain rewiring that makes learning and memory possible has definitely had an influence on my teaching style. Students hate boring lectures because there's nothing for their neurons to do. I make every effort to explain how each fact and concept could be used in the real world."
More Information:
Curriculum vitae
Course information and general information for students about neuroscience
Current members of the Kilgard Laboratory
Lisa Koonce
Department of Accounting, McCombs School of Business
UT Austin
"Many students are attracted to the field of accounting because of the perceptions of “concreteness” and “right answers.” It’s most rewarding to me when I see my students discover that accounting is not a deterministic, exact science, but rather it is actually a social science involving individuals with preferences and incentives."
Manuel F. Medrano
History Professor
UT Brownsville
"Throughout most of my life, my family at home and my family at the university have provided solid foundations for who I am and what I do. Never do I believe that my professional journey to this place at this time could have been achieved without their inspiration and never do I take them for granted."
G. Howard Miller
University Distinguished Teaching Associate Professor, Departments of History and Religious Studies
UT Austin
"The greatest privilege of my life has been to teach two generations of young people at the University of Texas at Austin for almost forty years. I have met my former students--and their children--all over the world. And to see what they have made of their lives has made me very proud and brought me great joy."
More Information:
Jesus in America course
UT Austin Department of History
Elizabeth Morrow
Professor of Cello, Music Department
UT Arlington
"My teaching goal is to provide cello students with a solid technical and musical foundation upon which they can continue to grow and develop over a lifetime. My satisfaction is watching students exceed expectations as they claim ownership of their own learning process, which in turn opens a window into their musical expressiveness."
More Information:
UTA faculty homepage
Texas Cello Academy & Festival
Patricia A. Nava, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
UT El Paso
"Teaching, for me, is not only about conveying information, but also a method for sharing my enthusiasm about learning. I love learning about new things and I try to instill the same enthusiasm in my students. I also believe that teaching and learning are more than what happens in the classroom: different settings (such as lab experiences, research group meetings, and student mentoring sessions) provide opportunities to learn about complementary topics. In summary, I view myself as a teacher both inside and out of the classroom."
Shelley M. Payne, Ph.D.
Professor, Molecular Genetics & Microbiology
UT Austin
"Teaching is the opportunity for me to talk with students about what I love doing. Having enthusiasm for the subject and for seeing the students learn makes it easier to guide them to a deeper understanding of biology."
Robert A. Prentice, J.D.
Associate Chairman, McCombs School of Business
UT Austin
"If someone has no natural ability to be a teacher, there is no training in the world that will make that person a success in the classroom. However, those who have a modicum of natural teaching ability can improve their teaching in a multitude of ways that all, at the core, involve a lot of hard work and dedication to the goal of creating those moments where the spark of recognition in a student’s face signals 'mission accomplished.'"
Chunjiang Qian, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
UT San Antonio
“I am very passionate about teaching and have a strong interest and commitment to helping my students succeed in school and in life. Seeing the students’ improvement in their learning experiences has been the most satisfying aspect of my academic career."
More Information:
UTSA Control, Computation and Cybernetics Laboratory homepage
UTSA C3 Lab 20 Foot Airship (student project)
Charles Ramírez Berg
University Distinguished Teaching Professor, Department of Radio-TV-Film
UT Austin
"Besides teaching the material and critical thinking, I hope I’m saying one more thing to students. I hope my teaching says: 'This is what loving what you do looks like. Now go out and find what you love, what you are born to do. Follow your passion and we all benefit. You will be creative, happy, and fulfilled, and we will reap the rewards of your creativity.'"
More Information:
UT Austin faculty homepage
UT Austin feature
Keynote address: Honors Day Convocation, Spring 2002
"Charles Ramírez Berg, Professor Paradiso" Alcalde magazine, 1998
UT Austin video profile
Elizabeth M. Richmond-Garza, Ph.D.
Director, Program in Comparative Literature Distinguished Teaching Associate Professor
UT Austin
"What I teach is often unfamiliar to students. My aim is plunge them into a dynamic multimedia world where art and literature come alive. Moving to Texas in 1990 was new to me, and I know that Paris or Moscow in 1901 is new to them. If I want students to care about Oscar Wilde, they need to stroll down a virtual London street. Students of Kalidasa need to know how to make a good curry. Once we transform an ordinary room into a gateway to another world, my students become the best time travelers and learn new things about themselves as well."
Stanley J. Roux
Professor in Molecular Cell & Developmental Biology
UT Austin
"I believe I have a strong obligation to try to generate in students an enthusiasm for the subject matter, but I also believe that I cannot generate enthusiasm in others for the material I teach unless I first generate enthusiasm in myself for this material."
Philip S. Schmidt, Ph.D., P.E.
University Distinguished Teaching Professor,
Associate Chair for Undergraduate Programs,
Department of Mechanical Engineering
UT Austin
“Learning isn't easy…..it takes work, and learning engineering takes a lot of work. Students work when they're motivated. So how do you motivate them to use their precious time for the hard work of learning? If there is a single fundamental question in teaching, this is it.”
More Information:
UT Austin faculty homepage
Detailed bio
Chancellor’s Council Outstanding Teaching Award
David J. Silva, Ph.D.
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
UT Arlington
"For me, the what, where, when and why of my teaching matters far, far less than the how of my students’ learning. As such, I constantly challenge myself to engage students not only in course-specific content but, more importantly, in the transformative act of learning to learn. Bringing to conscious awareness the often unconscious processes by which we construct knowledge is the greatest contribution that I can make in any student’s intellectual and personal development."
More Information:
UTA Linguistics homepage
Linguistics 2301 (Spring 2008)
Linguistics 4327/5305 (Spring 2009)
UTA Active Learning Portal
Critical Language Program at the University of Arizona: Korean language materials
Lawrence W. Speck
W. L. Moody, Jr. Centennial Professor in Architecture and Distinguished Teaching Professor, School of Architecture
UT Austin
"It is critically important to believe what you are teaching is significant and exciting and that learning the material in the class will genuinely enrich and enhance the lives of the students. Then it is easy to be passionate and enthusiastic and to make that passion contagious to students."
More Information:
www.larryspeck.com
Michael Starbird, Ph.D.
University Distinguished Teaching Professor, Department of Mathematics
UT Austin
"Good teaching can never be judged by watching the teacher. It’s what the students do that counts. If a teacher creates a world where students make discoveries and crystallize ideas for themselves, then the teacher has succeeded. I hope the continuing joys of thought and discovery are among the enduring legacies for students in my classes."
More Information:
UT Austin faculty homepage
UT Austin video profile
James W. Vick
Ashbel Smith Professor of Mathematics
University Distinguished Teaching Professor
UT Austin
"At the heart of my teaching philosophy is a characteristic of my basic nature: I have a fundamental desire to connect with other people, to understand their ideas and concerns, and to use whatever knowledge and talent I have to help them discover new and fascinating things about the world around us. I am convinced that students can have an exceptional experience when they know that I care about them and that I will celebrate their success along with them. For this reason, I try to develop a personal relationship with every student in the class, even when the numbers are over a hundred. If students know that I care, that I know their names and something about them, and that I am aware of how they are doing in the class, then they have more at stake, and they are willing to put forth greater effort."